Some Historic Deepsky Object Catalogs
Certainly, the most outstanding historical Deep Sky Object catalog is the
Messier Catalog, which is also the
subject of this online database.
Here we give links to some of the other early Deep Sky Object catalogs,
historically before and contemporary to Messier’s, but all before
- Several smaller catalogs of historical importance are given in our
History of Deep Sky Discovery page;
this includes Halley’s 6-object catalog.
- Hodierna’s Deep Sky Observations
- Hevelius‘ obscure but historically important
list of 16 “Nebulosae”
- De Cheseaux’s list of 21 “nebulae”
- Lacaille’s catalog
- Bode’s Catalog
- Caroline Herschel’s Deep Sky Discoveries (which were
all included in William Herschel’s catalog)
We would like to include more of the historic catalogs of “nebulous objects”
mentioned in our
History of Deepsky Discovery here,
especially Koehler’s catalog of 20.
Also, if you know of further historic Deep Sky catalogs (especially if suited
for amateur observing or “work-thru”) please
- History of the Discovery of the Deepsky Objects
- Historical Deep Sky Objects:
List of all 152 Deep Sky Object discovered before William Herschel began
his extensive survey in September, 1782, in various formats
- More Deepsky Catalogs and Observing Lists
Last Modification: 8 Feb 1998, 20:00 MET